Garage
Sale
providing hot rockin' surf/garage/mod
bug-music since 1994
Garage Sale is (left to
right):
John Irvine - Guitar, Vocals
Big Dave Cawley - Bass, Vocals
Skizz Cyzyk - Drums, Vocals
Alex Fine -
Guitar
Listen to Garage Sale and keep up to date with our activity. All you have to do is "Like" us on Facebook.
Here's a bunch of live video clips of Garage Sale that people have posted to YouTube, all compiled on one convenient page: www.beefplatter.com/GarageSaleOnYouTube.html
Here's some of our music on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/bfink2/sets/garage-sale/
Garage Sale is on the Garage Punk Hideout: garagepunk.ning.com/profile/GarageSale
Garage Sale at "Tunes At The Tower" (June 2011).
BAND BIO: In 1994, guitarists Dave McDonough and Pat Core founded Garage Sale to play surf, garage and mod rock covers & originals, heavily influenced by Link Wray, The Sonics, The Ventures, and The Kinks. Berserk's Skizz Cyzyk joined on drums, while Frankentractor's Paul Kelly and Jay Schlossberg took turns providing bass. In 1996, Berserk's Big Dave Cawley became Garage Sale's permanent bassist. The quartet gigged relentlessly and released their debut album, The Pointless Summer, in 1999. In 2002, Pat Core relocated to Hawaii, and was replaced by The Jennifers' John Irvine. The line-up remained consistent for the next ten years. In 2012, founding guitarist Dave McDonough left the band after 18 years, and was replaced by Alex Fine from Thee Lexington Arrows.
Garage Sale's The Pointless Summer
18 songs in 42
minutes!
(Beef Platter Records
BP9901)
GO METRIC! issue #12, Summer 2000
One day your grand children will gasp in awe when they learn that
you were alive in 2000. They won't do so because it happened to be the
first year of a new millennium -- new millenniums are a dime a dozen -- but
because 2000 was the year Garage Sale's debut CD was finally released. If
you're among the enlightened, you'll pause, gather your thoughts, then regale
them with tales of basking in the glory of Pointless Summer the year it
came out. If you weren't a member of the Garage Sale flock, you'll
lie. You'll push aside your pride, stare those innocent kids right in
their trusting eyes and bullshit until you're blue in the face. And you'll
pray they take the bait too. Anything but admit to missing the boat on
Pointless Summer. You may have made a mistake back in '00 but
there's no need to bring further disgrace onto your family name. Lie, you
bastard! Lie and take your shame to the grave. Or take my advice and
marinade yourself in the sounds of this CD. Garage Sale is a band name
that should have been used hundreds of times but, to the best of my knowledge,
never has been. Same goes for their sounds, there should be tons of bands
trying to bring together the best of the '60s like Garage Sale does but no one
does it like these guys. Ventures-styled surf instrumentals, Sonics-like
garage punk, even a bit of Mersey beat, Garage Sale have it all to offer.
I wish this were available on LP but, with all due respect to Marshall McLuhan,
the medium is of little importance when the "message" is of this
magnitude. Magnificent! (Mike Faloon)
NO COVER: Know Your Product, City Paper September 6 -
12, 2000
The
stalwart Baltimore quartet Garage Sale has at last come up with a recording that
captures the essence of its feel-good live shows. That The Pointless Summer
(self-released on the band's Beef Platter imprint) is the first recorded
offering from former Berserkers Dave Cawley (bass) and Skizz Cyzyk (drums) is no
less monumental. Anyone who's seen the band perform will recognize the bulk of
the songs included here; for those who haven't, the album serves as a fine
sampling of the veteran outfit's polished repertoire of surf instrumentals and
garage rockers.
Although
the guitars have a consistent jangle to them, the band recorded the album in a
couple of different situations, giving it some breadth of sound. One such
departure from overall recorded cleanliness is a revved-up and distorted version
of the live-show staple "One More Time," whose choppy Kinks/Who-style riffing
benefits from the raw recording. More Anglophilia appears on the album's opener,
guitarist Pat Core's catchy, Kinks-informed "Never Want to B Like U," and "Ain't
So Groovy," which features Cawley departing from his usual boyish voice to adopt
a distorted Howard Devoto-esque sneer.
One thing that sets Garage Sale above
other surf and garage bands is its reluctance to rely on covers. Rather, the
band pays tribute to its genre in sly ways that might escape the indiscriminate
listener. For example, rather than cover the old surf standard "Telstar," the
guitarists briefly break into the song's signature line between verses of
"Forgive Me." And thankfully, Garage Sale boasts the appropriate technical
prowess often missing in many contemporary garage/surf bands. Core and McDonough
seem to effortlessly unleash 64th-note solos, while Cyzyk keeps time with
remarkable technical finesse, his backbeat always solid.
More important than their good taste in
influences or their tasty chops, the members of Garage Sale are simply fine
songsmiths. The Pointless Summer, its title an earnest take on what summers are
all about in the end, is rife with enough singable melodies and catchy choruses
to get one through the other three-quarters of the year. (Hank Baker)
PUNK CATALOG, Summer 2000
GARAGE SALE: The Pointless Summer - This is a really cool
one. It's not for everyone, but don't take that as some sort of "damning
with faint praise," 'Cuz this is a really cool one! Here's the
scoop: word of the day is eclectic. Jangle garage pop in the vein
of THE HI-FIVES smooshed with really rippin' surf instrumentals -- and let's be
frank, hot surf is guitar rock. Then the gears shift again for laid back
geek pop. Mike Faloon of EGGHEAD and KUNG FU MONKEYS is a big fan, take
the hint.
Rock Beat International, issue no. 20 - Spring
2001
GARAGE SALE: The Pointless Summer
- by Geoff Cabin. Garage Sale have been active on the music scene in Baltimore
since the mid-nineties, releasing a few cassettes and contributing tracks to
several compilation albums. They have recently released their first CD, The
Pointless Summer, and it's an excellent effort that showcases the band's diverse
musical strengths. Garage Sale consists of Dave McDonough on guitar and vocals,
Pat Core on guitar and vocals, Big Dave Cawley on bass and vocals and Skizz on
drums. The tracks on the album are characterized by highly energetic and
enthusiastic performances and an agreeably goofball sense of humor. Garage
Sale's music is nothing if not lots of fun. Things get started with a bang by
"Never Wanna B Like U," a catchy garage-rock number driven by a Kinks-like
guitar riff and energetic drum fills. "Testerosa" is a Dick Dale-style surf
instrumental with rapid-fire doublepicking on the bass strings. "Couples Only"
is a super-catchy surf instrumental with an infectious beat that is sure to fill
the dance floor. Snotty put-downs have always been a specialty of garage-rock
bands and Garage Sale upholds the tradition with "Aint So Groovy," featuring
some smoking guitar and powerhouse drumming. The group changes pace a bit with
"Change The Styles," a wonderfully catchy Merseybeat-style number. "Trying To
Pretend" mines similar territory. "One More Time" is reminiscent of "Surfin'
Bird," with a crazed voice repeating a single phrase over and over again on top
of some fuzzed-out guitar and a hard-driving beat. There is lots of other neat
stuff here as well. All in all, a very impressive effort. This album is sure to
be the life of your next party.
excerpt from Surfari USA: Baltimore / What
is a Surf Explosion? by Dennis Crolley
Garage Sale played a hepped-up set of ballsy pop and rock'n'roll.
These guys might not be the slickest recreators of classic surf tunes but they
sure know how to play fun music that makes you want to move. They are sort of
like a post-punk Beach Boys but such a description doesn't do them justice.
Their enthusiasm is infectious, speared on by Dave 2, their charmingly spastic
bassist, and the relentless drumming of local legend Skizz. Dave 1 and Pat trade
lead and rhythm guitar parts and everybody sings. Their self-produced cassette
is really cool and I look forward to seeing these guys again soon. They did
duplicate "Apache" from the Cossacks' set (oops, that means the Cossacks
actually did four Shadows' songs: "Apache," "Find Me A Golden Street," "Man of
Mystery," and "The Savage") and made it clear that they can do a song justice
even if it is raw and less than reverently rendered. The same truism applies to
their encore of "Squad Car" which was also performed by the Cossacks
earlier.
Bruce Arntson, star of EXISTO says: Gadzooks! I sit here
grinning maniacally at my computer, as I become ever more infected by the
giddy-jaunty-naughty surf sounds of Garage Sale. These kids have authentically
recaptured a lost summertime groove, an ebullience untainted by self-awareness
or good taste. Skizz' flippant "Two-and" backbeats recall a time when the word
"funky" referred primarily to an offensive odor. Garage Sale has triumphantly
put the "um" back in summer! I love it!
hear songs from The Pointless Summer at The Official Atomic TV
Houseband site
Order the CD. Available through:
Atomic
Books
Mutant Pop
Vital Music
Garage Sale discography:
Garage Sale cass. 1994 Beef Platter
"Exercise One" on Joy Division Tribute comp. cass. 1996
"Change The Styles" on "Listener Supported" comp. cass.
1996 You Say When
Shark Sandwich cass. 1996 Beef
Platter
Book Us To Play cass. 1996 Beef Platter
(a shorter, demo-version of Shark Sandwich)
"Flight Of The Emu" on "Shot Putting In An Empty Stadium" comp.
cass 1998 Dizzy Records
"One More Time" on "Fuzzy
Logic" comp. CD 1998 RPM Records
"Space Tour One:
Mars" on Day Dreaming With An Empty Station Wagon comp. CD 1999 Dizzy
Records
The Pointless Summer CD 2000 Beef
Platter
Buck Hill on Left Of The Dial
Replacements Tribute CD 2000 Face Down
Records
"Ain't So Groovy" (a previously unreleleased version) on The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout, Vol. 6: Noises From The Hideout! compilation. 2011 GaragePunk Hideout
for booking info, email bfink2-at-gmail.com, or write to
Garage
Sale c/o BEEF PLATTER RECORDS, 3700 Beech Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21211
U.S.A.
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